Celebrate awards, let Indian Olympic Association not play spoilsport

There is a huge list of awards – Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna awards, Dronacharya awards and Dhyan Chand awards. The whole process of applying for these awards is in itself a tedious one.

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S Kannan

New Delhi

August 18, 2019

UPDATED: August 18, 2019 13:42 IST

(Divij Sharan Twitter Photo)

In sport, awards and rewards come naturally. In India, specifically, the national sports awards assume great significance.

As the nation braces to celebrate hockey wizard Dhyan Chand's birth anniversary on August 29, also now known as national sports day, latest winners of the national sports will feel proud.

There is a huge list of awards Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna awards, Dronacharya awards and Dhyan Chand awards. The whole process of applying for these awards is in itself a tedious one.

And after entries are accepted, there is a process of rejection after which the final selection is done by a select committee. The list of awardees announced on Saturday was a motley mix.

Some obvious champions were among those "lucky" to be chosen. However, it's also sad to note that very deserving people missed the bus, with names of Asian Games tennis gold medallist Divij Sharan and pistol coach Jaspal Rana not making the cut.

Divij is India's top ranked doubles player and even seen as someone who could qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. To overlook his achievements in last year and this year as well does not reflect well on the awards committee.

The same goes for Jaspal Rana, pistol prodigy turned coach who has been churning out winners first and now champions. A selfless guru, his not being chosen for the Dronacharya award, for a second year running, is bad news.

Knowing Jaspal, he will simply smile and focus on the task ahead, ensuring India produces a medallist from pistol sport at the Tokyo Olympics.

Frankly speaking, apart from the halo around the awards, the monetary reward is also very rich. Maybe for a cricketer Rs 5 lakh to go with the Arjuna Award and a scroll is not much but for an athlete like Swapna Burman, it's a fortune. Swapna was promised the moon by the West Bengal government last year after her heptathlon golden effort in the Jakarta Asian Games but she continues to languish. She has not got the promised house and waits tirelessly.

It's good to see the awards committee honour a discipline like motorsport, which is not measurable like the Olympics, Asian Games, World Championship and Commonwealth Games.

Formula One race drivers like Narain Karthikeyan, Karun Chandhok did not get these awards and Gaurav Gill has made the cut. From racing superbikes for fun to car racing on circuits and now a world class rally driver, Gill is all about talent and being fearless in a sport where few seconds separate life and death.

With national sports day now important in India and the government's ambitious Khelo India being promoted aggressively, it's time to look at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

The Indian Olympic Association has been making the wrong noises on a proposed boycott. First, it was National Rifle Association of India president Raninder Singh who had talked of a boycott after shooting was scrapped from the Birmingham CWG programme. Today, the same Raninder has reversed his decision and feels the Indian government should put pressure on the British government to ensure the inclusion of shooting.

Boycott in sport is the worst thing which can happen. The world knows when the 1980 Moscow Olympics Games faced a boycott from the West Bloc, it devalued the Games. Flip through the pages of sporting history and you can read volumes on what happened in South Africa during the Apartheid. And it was during this time, India boycotted the Davis Cup tie against them in 1974.

For IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta to have even spoken about boycotting the 2022 Birmingham CWG in May was wrong. With IOA president Narinder Dhruv Batra later writing to sports minister Kiren Rijiju in July that India should consider boycotting the Commonwealth Games is also wrong.

Agreed, the CWG is not as big as the Olympics or the Asian Games and there is still a colonial hangover. Just because shooting has not been included does not mean other athletes who win medals at the same Commonwealth Games are punished.

In fact, in some sporting disciplines at the CWG, the competition is truly world class, best exemplified by Neeraj Chopra's golden effort in javelin last year in Gold Coast, Australia.

For each Indian athlete, there is a competition cycle. If, now, the elite Indian athlete is slogging to qualify for the Olympics and then deliver in Tokyo, there are hundreds of other athletes preparing for the Asian Games cycle.

As the CWG usually precedes the Asian Games, it's like a preview to what the Indian athletes can achieve. Every medal counts in sport, be it at the club level, national level or the highest international grade.

The IOA needs to recognise efforts being put in by so many medal aspirants who dream of glory, first in the Commonwealth Games. If at all the IOA has differences with the Commonwealth Games Federation that needs to be dealt with separately and not making pawns out of our Indian athletes.

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